e-Health in South Korea e-Health: Strategy and Best Practices
In contrast to its e-government and general e-service strategies, Korea’s e-health program was regarded by the WHO as only moderately effective in 2006. Despite starting in 2003 the Korean Program has only now beginning to gain momentum.
Up until 2008 the e-Health Association has developed led by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy have focused on developing on what it sees as the five core pillars for a successful u-Health industry by 2013. These areas are:
 Standardization
 Law and policy planning and reform
 Human resource development, e.g. access to medical knowledgeR&D for e-health products
 International collaboration
Despite some work by the various Ministries on defining their domestic requirements in terms of electronic health records , e-prescriptions, etc., there has been little real progress on e-health in Korea and many healthcare facilities lack appropriate ICT based information tools.
According to a consumer survey in 2007 the poor level of informatization in healthcare this apparent lack of progress can be attributed to the fact that e–health was not seen as part of the overall e-government strategy and the structure and parlous state of the health sector in Korea following the rapid introduction of universal health insurance.
Following the reorganization of government ministries in 2008 (under the new government administration); e-health attention has begun to focus on e-health as an important growth industry for the Korean economy (like e-government and e-cities before it).
Consequently, relevant government ministries now have more concrete and robust action plans for realization of e-health in effect.
Once again the hand of the Chaebol can be seen to be at work. Thestrategic planning by the e-Health Association between 2004 and 2007 has been unashamedly